UP: ED summons IAS officer Chandrakala, SP MLC Mishra in illegal sand mining case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday summoned senior IAS officer B. Chandrakala for questioning in connection with an illegal sand mining case in Uttar Pradesh, officials said. Chandrakala, the former District Magistrate of Hamirpur district, has been summoned for questioning to the ED office in Lucknow, a senior agency official told IANS. A CBI FIR on which the ED based its case has alleged that Chandrakala as the Hamirpur District Magistrate had granted several lease in violation of the Allahabad High Court orders which had ratified an e-tender policy.

Beside, Chandrakala, the financial probe agency has also summoned three more people, including the Samajwadi Party MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra for questioning on January 28. The ED summon comes a day after it registered a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case in connection with its ongoing probe into illegal sand mining and role of bureaucrats and politicians in Uttar Pradesh. On January 5, the CBI had raided Chandrakala's homes in Lucknow and Noida and seized two bank accounts and one locker, besides recovering some documents.

Mishra's house in Kanpur was also searched. It was on January 2, when the CBI had registered the case against 11 people, including Chandrakala, miner Adil Khan, geologist/mining officer Moinuddin, Mishra and his brother, besides Sanajy Dikshit who contested the 2017 Assembly polls on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket and his father. The then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had granted the mines leases to 14 people in 2013 in Hamirpur district against the High Court's order. On January 7, the CBI released a list of 22 leases cleared by the Samajwadi Party chief, who was also the Mining Minister during that period, and was later succeeded by Gayatri Prasad Prajapati.

(With inputs from agencies.)